The invention relates to an ultrasound applicator for diagnosis; more specifically it relates to a manually operated ultrasound applicator suitable for examining internal organs and cavities of the human body, which applicator incorporates a transducer head, composed of a plurality of transducer elements built into an elongated, rigid housing having an scanning surface designed for placement onto the body area to be examined.
Ultrasound applicators of this type conventionally are designed for scanning internal organs of the human body from the outside through the skin, however it would be desirable to provide an ultrasound applicator designed for diagnosis of tissues or organs located in cavities of the human body which until now have been physically examined by hand. Physical examination has its limitations, it would be desirable to furnish a tool for medical examination providing precise readings and suitable for examining cavities in addition to or instead of physical examination.
The published German Patent Application No. 2,950,203, discloses an endoscope constituting an eye piece, a flexible tube, including bendable connecting portion and a cylinder-shaped front portion. A light conductor and control cables are arranged within the flexible tube and the front portion bears a built-in ultrasound transducer. The known endoscope is not very well adapted for use with examination of cavities because it cannot be sufficiently sterilized due to its sensitive optical system. In addition, the design of the bendable connecting portion renders the known endoscope applicable only for procedures requiring just relatively small bending angles. Therefore, possible applications of the known apparatus are rather limited.
European Patent Application No. 0,039,045 discloses another endoscope comprising a remotely controlled bendable front portion and two ultrasound transducers arranged therein. Similar to the mentioned endoscope, again the front portion of this endoscope has a relatively small bending angle, which most likely amounts to not more than a few degrees. The manipulation mechanism providing remote control and installed in the endoscope's interior is rather bulky, therefore the endoscope can only be applied to areas of sufficient dimensions.
A medical ultrasound testing probe is disclosed in the specification of German Utility Model No. 6,942,159, incorporating a handle at one end of a flexible tube and an ultrasound converter arranged at the other end. It is not possible to bend the ultrasound converter with respect to the adjacent end of the tube, which limits the use of the testing probe for examination of internal organs.